"Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You", killing Holden Caulfield

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You- Peter Cameron

Marketing is lying. Advertising is all about cheating. And that does include literature. Yes, I know I sound infuriated. I am. This is not going to be a merciful review.

Critics have saluted "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You", Peter Cameron's latest novel as "one of the all-time great New York books", a "comic gem" and the (here it goes, hear the drums rattling) perfect modern version of "The Catcher in the Rye". Now that's what I call advertising a book, don't you think?

Of course, "Someday..." is not what the ads say. To begin with While reading it, I couldn't help myself but thinking on how soon we were going to see a film adaption of the book, directed by the responsible of Little Miss Sunshine or Cameron Crowe... and while preparing this review I realized the screen version already exists. It’s understandable; the book has all the ingredients to be considered a potential “cool” film (even the indie ticks abound) but without losing any cross-over appealing… meaning without having any substance. Because, being honest, to me, this book is rather pointless, seriously empty.

I’m very sorry to say that “Someday…” is full of cheap tricks and bad writer resources. To avoid a tiring monologue or a book of young adult introspection, Cameron uses a psychiatrist. He also has an oracle character, James’s Grandma. Someone has even pointed out that it’s her own version of Holden Caulfield sister Phoebe. My goodness. Of course parents are divorced and odd, and her sister is dating an older married man. There’s even the shadow of 9/11 there. If Cameron quickly refuses to use that factor for the story, then why do we have that conversation? And then we have the resolution of the book, of course. I won’t spoil the “revelation”, but what gives sense to the erratic behaviour of main character James Sveck, that justifies the whole novel, is really lame as an argument. Comparing that to Holden Caulfield is offensive.

As a character, James Sveck is another main “concern” for me. He is just irritating, not fun (the only funny thing to me was the housing thing). But aside from that, he is completely untrue, like the rest of the characters. James thoughts and words are the ones of the author, not the ones from a heavily confused 18 years old kid. He is supposed to be extremely smart, to the point of being obnoxious. He talks about Denton Welch and architecture, and has really boring obsession for objects and brands, but he doesn’t know what alopecia means (just an example of incoherency).

I do believe “Someday…” is just an attempt to make a little novel (short, that’s another one of the few positive things) that fits ideally under the Young Adult label, of a kid looking to grow-up in a world that is confusing to him. It does aim to have a moral lesson (another “issue”): James will survive and grow stronger. Take life as a constant lesson, some of them are painful, but you will learn anyway. That might be a rather enlightening conclusion (it looks like a bland self improvement book to me) for a teenager to read, but to salute this as one of the best books published lately is ridiculous.

SCORE: 2,5/10

"Ms. Hempel Chronicles", teaching, learning, living

Ms. Hempel Chronicles- Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

As soon as you start reading "Talent", the first of the eight short stories of "Ms. Hempel Chronicles", you'll find yourself instantly engaged by the very peculiar voice of Beatrice Hempel, an unorthodox teacher still in her twenties, confused while she grows, as we all do, figuring out what she wants to do with her life, and longing for something, deep inside. The difference is while she tries  to discover what she's looking for, she's also a middle school literature teacher. 

Author's Sarah Shun-lien Bynum is a magnificient one. I'm impressed about the way she's capable of balancing tones without hurting the fluidity of the book. A dreamy paragraph might be followed by a lightweight one, but the next sentence can be a "heavy", dramatic one. It all sums to build a solid portray, and create a genuine and refreshing character. Ms. Hempel is a believable, complex character, and at at the same time, a quite charming women.

After "Talent", we reach the highest peak of the book with its second story, "Accomplice", a wonderful love letter to literature, with a sense of magic, wonder and hope. Holden Caulfield, Tobias Wolff, a father in the "shadows", the fear of of being using the kids to explore her longing to go further, to reach something she can't clearly define. As The National would say, "she waits for the click, she waits but it doesn't kick in". What a haunting story.

But "Accomplice" is also the curse for the book, as the next four stories are nowhere near these fabulous beginning. The school and Beatrice relation with her class is sacrificed for her family and personal life. Bynum is very good writer and her skilled but surprisingly natural prose keeps you reading. There's also a more bitter, personal grey zone, an anxiety for being "stucked" that is quite appealing, but the sense of the magic and wonder, of reading something special, is gone, replaced for a more unoriginal recreation of the past.

Luckily, Bynum rescues "Ms. Hempel Chronicles" with the two last stories, "Satellite" and "Bump", which are again superb. Contrary to the previous central chapters, in "Satellite", she doesn't explain the story of her family. Instead, what she explains reveals her famliar story. And "Bump" concentrates, in a unique way, "defying gravity", with a simple, unexpected encounter where past meets present, and what could have been meets the future. Thanks to that powerful end, once you close the book, although unbalanced and imperfect, it works as a whole. You won't forget Beatrice. And for sure, we shouldn't forget Sarah Shun-lien Bynum.

SCORE: 6,5/10

"In Youth Is Pleasure", teen dreams and traumas

In Youth Is Pleasure- Denton Welch

Honestly, it's my fault. One has to be very careful when reads a critic that compares a book with "The Catcher in the Rye", or a review that qualifies Orvil Pym, the starring character, like a "Holden Caulfield written by Oscar Wilde". Because the majority of times, this sort of "great expectations" will only make the disappointment much bigger.

"In Youth Is Pleasure" is not a bad book. Far from it. But is one of these readings that satisfies only a type of readers. The ones that need an exuberant prose to enjoy a book. The ones that find pleasant to describe in detail the smell of the food, or how a dress looks like. In my opinion this is a book for critics, the sort of (some) critic that mention Proust among the comparisons... Well, they are pretty right. And that's the issue. It's not my cup of tea.

This is a book of extreme sensitivity, in which we follow a peculiar British teenager, Orvil Pym, on his summer adventures. But the adventures, pretty trivial on the surface, are more relevant in an introspective way. He is discovering himself in this trip. Probably. And I say probably because it is hard for me to say whether he achieves something or not. Denton Welch, a cult status author completely unknown in Spain, is able to evoke the feelings of melancholia, isolation, loneliness and incomprehension with brilliance, but also makes Orvil a weirdo (these dreams and surreal passages doesn't help), childish character, that makes it hard to connect with.

Being 100% sincere, this book has been, at times, a real torture to read. In my opinion, in "In Youth Is Pleasure" style is more important that content. It might be very well written, but the only exception of the final chapter on the train, it says nothing to me.

SCORE: 3,25/10